Few of Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls fall within a major city's limits, but Ashiribetsu Falls does — it drops 26 meters on the upper Atsubetsu River in Minami-ku, the southern ward of Sapporo. The name preserves the island's older linguistic layer: it derives from the Ainu "ashiri-betsu," meaning "new river," and the same word is the root of the place name Atsubetsu itself. That double inheritance — an Ainu river name carried into both a waterfall and a Sapporo district — makes Ashiribetsu a small lesson in how Hokkaido's geography was named. At 26 meters it is among the more modest falls on the national list, and among the easiest to place: it belongs to Japan's fifth-largest city.
Visiting Ashiribetsu Falls
The falls are on the upper reaches of the Atsubetsu River in Minami-ku, Sapporo, making this one of the few Top-100 waterfalls located within a major Japanese city.
